Aeroplane.



J. P. SANDELL.

AEROPLANE.

APPLICATION FILED MAE.3,1910.

Patented June 9, 1914.

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2 OW J J. F. SANDELL.

AEROPLANE,

. APPLICATION FILED MAR.3, 1910. L "1,099 573. I Pamented June '9, 19M.

(is w) JOHN F. SANDELL, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

AE-norLANn.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 9, 1914.

Application filed March 3, 1910. Seria1No. 546,991.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J OHN F. SANDELL, a citizen of the United States, residing at 1644 Farragut avenue, Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented new and useful Improvements in Aeroplanes, of which the following is a spec1fication.

My invention relates to new and useful improvements in aeroplanes, and is fully described and explained in the specification and shown in the accompanying drawing, in which- Figure 1 is a side elevation of my improved device; Fig. 2 is a front view of the same and Fig. 3 is a top plan of the central portion of the device.

Referring to thedrawings, A is a longitudinally extending central rod, upon the upper side of which is supported at the front end thereof a motor A driving a propeller A in the usual manner. To the lower side of this rod, also-at its forward end and secured thereto by suitable braces, the de tails of'which it is not necessary to set forth, is the main supporting plane of the construction B, the same being composed of three parts, a central portion 5, and side portions 6 12 The central portion is rigidly secured to the frame-work of the struoture, the said frame-work consisting, in gen eral, of diagonally disposed struts a; running down from the bar or rod A, a skeleton platform carried by the lower ends of said struts and indicated in the drawings by al the said platform carrying the seatof the op erator, and being supplied with supporting wheels and vertical rods a which run upward from said skeleton platform, all the parts being provided with suitable guys and braces tohold them rigidly in position and the skeleton platform having its side bars curved upward and attached to the central barA to give rigidity to the construction. The details of this construction are not particiilarly important, as they can be varied at "Will The side portions 6 b of the plane B are removably secured to the central portion thereof, and held in place by guys as illustrated, and by joints whereby the marginal members of the portions can be attached to the correspondingmembers of the central portion of the plane. These side portions are made removable so that the total dimen sions of the construction can be reduced very easily in order that it may be housed in a building of comparatively small size. I

The structure as so far described, except in matters of detail of frame-work and bracing is substantially that of many monoplanes now in use and is capable of great variation. It is believed, however, that the making of the sides of the plane removable from the central portion thereof is novel without regard to the details of construction and the means whereby this is accomplished can be varied also. The construction as thus far described, however, operates exactly as do many monoplanes and no detailed description of such operation will be necessary. In addition to these features, which are in general common, the construction is provided at its rear with vertical and horizontal rudders C and D, which perform their functions in the usual manner, and pivotally mounted in any convenient way. The method of rigging these rudders for controlpurposes is believed to partake of features of merit, and it will therefore be set forth in detail.

The frame-work of the machine carries, immediately in front of the seat provided for the operator a swiveled support 6 bifurcated at its upper end and having pivoted between its furcations a steering handle consisting of two arms crossing each other, a longitudinallyextendin arm E and a transversely-extcnding arm The support 6 is roughly like an oar-lock in form and it will be observed that by its use the steeringmember can be oscillated either about a horizontal or a vertical axis or both so as to partake of universal movement. Two lines (13 are led from the horizontal rudder over suitable pulleys and are attached at their ends to the longitudinally-extending bar E of the steering member on opposite sides of the pivot thereof, the connection being such that when the rear-end of this bar E is depressed the rear-end of the horizontal rudder -will swing up and vice versa. Two lines 0 are similarly led from the vertical rudder and attached to the bar E of the steering member on opposite sides of the pivot thereof in such manner that the vertical rudder and the steerin member will necessarily rotate in opposite irections when the steering'member is swung. The result of this construction is that when the rear end of "means the entire control of the direction of flight is brought into one lever partaking of universal movement and the lever is so connected to the rudders that the mere pointing of "the lever in the desired direction will cause the flight to occur in that direction,

the operation of steering thus becoming one. -which is almost instinctive and very easy to manage.

Above the center of the main plane B is mounted a supplemental plane F, the same being immediately behind the propeller in position to receive the air driven backward therefrom, so as to exert the greatest possible lifting effect upon the structure, the power of the motor being by thismeans transformed directly into lifting power to a certain extent. This supplemental plane is pivoted to its forward support and extends backward and slightly downward therefrom, its rear end being attached by a rod f to a lever F which 1s in turn connected by a wire f to a handle F within reach of the operator. In starting a flight the supplemental plane can be slanted quite steeply downward to cause a rapid ascent and thereafter it can be flattened out for horizontal movement.

At the lower lateral edges of the main plane B are mounted compensating righting or stabilizing planes G G the same being radially supported upon rock-shafts 9 g which extend along the lower and rear edges of the main plane B nearly to the center thereof. These rock-shafts are supplied at their ends with forwardly extending radial arms g g. The ends of which are passed through holes in awalking-beam lever G' centrally pivoted from the framework of the machine and one of the said radial arms being prolonged forwardly toforma handle.

It is well known that the greatest difiiculty in the handling of an aeroplane, or other flying machine working upon the gen eral plan thereof, occurs in attempting to maintain lateralstability. The structure is maintained in the air, because'of the longitudinal movement of air-currents working upon the plane or planes thereof which said planes are so inclined as to force the structure upward by a wedging action under the influence of such relative longitudinal movement, Now if the wind blows harder upon one side than upon the other, the tendency will be for the side upon which the wind blows harder to rise more rapidly than the other side, so that the lateral stability is disturbed. It is also well known that the lateral stability can be maintained by flat-.

tening the plane, a portion thereof or an auxlliary movable plane upon the side which tends to rise and correspondingly increasing the'pitch of a similar part on the opposite side, and heretofore such shifting has been,

done by manual manipulation of the operator. The fundamental difiiculty with such a methodof operation lies inthe fact that theoperator cannot begin to restore the stability until after the machine has oscillated at least enough for him to feel its movement, and if the tilting is sudden and violent the structure may careen to a very considerable 'Various automatic devices have been suggested for maintaining a stable equilibrium, but these have, as a rule, been called into action by the tilt of the machine itself, so

that the evil largely arises before any effort extent before it can be righted. This is particularly disadvantageous when running is made either manually or automatically to remedy it. The present device is so arranged that the cause of the lateral tilting of the device automatically produces such effects as to counteract it. Thus a strong wind on one side of the machine automatically flattens out the corresponding righting or stabilizing plane G or G and the turning of this righting plane automatically steepens the pitch of thecorresponding plane on the opposite side. As long as the wind is blowing equally onboth sides of the machine, these planes occupy exactly symmetrical positions, but any increase in the power of the wind "automatically flattens one and steepens the other,

By this means if the planes are of proper size with reference to the main planes. of the machine the equilibrium will be auto- -matically maintained, and no tilting or horizontal plane, springs being provided whereby, they are normally held 1n the position illustrated in the drawings. The result of this construction is that an uneven wind pressure upon the two sides of the machine will press one of these supplemental planes or the other into a more nearly flat position thereby accomplishing the results which have already been set forth.

I realize that considerable variation is possible in the details of construction of my improved device, without departing from the spirit of my invention, and I do not intend, therefore, to limit myself to the specific form herein shown and described.

What /I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a flying machine, the combination of a. central frame member, a supplemental frame depending from and su ported by the central frame member, a plat orm on the supplemental frame, a motor supported near one end of the central frame member, a propeller connected to and operated by the motor, a stationary central plane at one end of and below the central frame, end planes extending from the ends of the central plane, short planes pivoted to and near the rear ends of the end planes, crank rods extending upwardly from each of the said short planes, a centrally pivoted lever, the inner ends of the crank arms being pivoted to opposite ends of the pivoted lever, whereby movement of one of said short planes in one direction will move the opposite short plane in the opposite direction, a plane pivotally supported on the frame in rear of and in proximity to the propeller to receive air currents from said propeller, an operating handle on the platform, a connection between the operating handle and the pivoted plane to operate the latter in one direction, and rudders for controlling the direction of movement of the flying machine.

2. In a flying machine, the combination of a central frame, planes supported by and located near one end of the central frame, a motor supported on the central frame, a propeller operated by the motor, a pivoted plane mounted above the central frame and m rear of the propeller, means for operating the latter plane, a platform below the central frame, a horizontally pivoted rudder at the rear end of the central frame,

arms extending from the latter rudder, a

vertically pivoted rudder at the rear end of the central frame and below the horizontally pivoted rudder, arms extending from the vertically pivoted rudder, an operating lever on the platform, said lever having 0ppositely extended arms, means for mountmg the operating lever to rock vertically and horizontally, cables connected to the outer ends of the arms extending from the horizontally pivoted rudder and to the operating lever on opposite sides of the pivotal point of the latter, guides over which said cables pass, cables connected to the ends of the arms extending from the vertically pivoted rudder, the opposite ends of the latter cables bein connected to the ends of the arms exten ing from the operating lever, and guides over which the last mentioned cables pass.

JOHN F. SANDELL. In presence of- J. G. ANDERSON,

R. A. Scam. 

